"Variation does not mean evolution. If an artist varies his mode of expression this only means that he has changed his manner of thinking, and in changing, it might be for the better or it might be for the worse."--Picasso

Portrait of Dr. Gachet by Vincent VanGogh

When I spend a lot of time looking at the body of an artist's work, I always come to a point where I identify closely with the artist. For example, I was at a Van Gogh exhibit years ago and found myself in tears in front of his Portrait of Dr. Gachet. It is difficult to explain why. It had something to do with the painterly quality of his work--the very existence of the brush strokes, that connected me to him, one human to another. It was as though I felt what he had been feeling when he was painting. It is an intense empathy. When I feel this way, it is humbling, and I am honored to be on the receiving end of such a communication directly from the artist.

When I recently spent time perusing Picasso's paintings, I was struck by the variety of his styles. I have chosen, somewhat randomly, a painting from each decade of Picasso's life for the slideshow below, beginning with a portrait of his mother painted in 1896 and ending with an untitled piece from the 70s.

I think one way many viewers of art enjoy the experience is to try to get inside the mind of the artist. With Picasso's work, I feel as though the emotions are very raw, and yet I feel quite a bit of distance is interjected, almost as though he is manipulating the viewer, controlling the situation, which is, I suppose, the way of most artists. Perhaps the distance I feel is derived from the fact that Picasso expected the viewer to come up with his or her own conclusions. He said, "It isn't up to the painter to define the symbols. Otherwise it would be better if he wrote them out in so many words! The public who look at the picture must interpret the symbols as they understand them."

It is evident, however, from the chronology, that Picasso did experiment quite a bit. He says,"If all the ways I have been along were marked on a map and joined up with a line, it might represent a minotaur." Even his language is very visual!

When it comes right down to it, the very reason I started this Las Meninas project was to experiment. I wanted to learn a bit about cubism and try something new.

Musician Conor Oberst says, "I think that, with anything creative, you should have the freedom to experiment, and that experimentation means not feeling totally responsible for how other people perceive it."